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By now you all know that I am an avid reader, and read a crazy amount each day. It is what makes me the happiest and most content (outside of my kids and husband, obviously;), and what really feeds my soul. While I adore romance novels and read them the most, I am also a HUGE FAN of any book that makes me THINK. If I find myself scribbling notes down while reading a book geared towards personal development, I know I’ve hit the jackpot.

It’s funny, when the Kindle first came out I thought that there was no way I would give up my books. I felt that they were impersonal, and that having a book in my hands, and smelling the musty smell of an old library book was where my allegiance lay. I’ve travelled a lot of places lugging books upon books, because I can’t leave home without something to read. I waited anxiously for the UPS guy to release new copies of books to my door, and drove with my kids to many stores looking for the book that was only stocked in the last place I looked. I was old school and proud of it. No e-reader for me!

Until my husband bought me a Kindle Fire a couple of years ago for Christmas.

You guys! I fell in love. To order books at any time day or night? To have new releases automatically appear in my Kindle at midnight? To never be without a good story, no matter where I was? The Kindle has been a game changer for me, and opened up doors and allowed me to find stories and authors I wouldn’t find without it. Now I do still go to the library and check out the free books there, and I buy books from authors that I collect and add to my home library, but I almost exclusively read on my Kindle. I adore it.

So I have this Kindle Fire and I use it every single day, for hours at a time. I have Kindle Unlimited, which lets me get as many books as I want for $9.99/month, and I’ve been extremely satisfied with that. There are tons of good choices there and I feel that I get my money’s worth of books for that fee. (I read about a book a day, and if you think each book costs about $2.99 on average times 30 days per month, you get about $89. Kindle Unlimited saves me some cash;)

I digress, though.

Clearly I love my Kindle Fire, it is about the same size as an iPad mini and acts as a full blown tablet, It’s really easy to search books and you can download apps and use it as such. BUT, with all this power comes the weight (less than a book, but STILL), and the battery drains fairly quickly if you read a ton on it. If I don’t turn it off at night or shut off the wireless access, I have to charge it nightly. NOTHING stinks more than wanting to read a book and having your Kindle Fire die. Ugh.

Enter the all new Kindle Paperwhite. It is really lightweight (less than a paperback), has zero screen glare, has a new font that has increased readability, the resolution is better (300ppi), AND has access to all the books in Amazon that my Kindle Fire has. It’s also a little smaller, so I find it a bit more portable. Perfect for sticking in my purse and reading during my lunch break at work or while my kids are in gymnastics. I love that I can keep this in my purse and have all my books with me at all times, because sometimes waiting in the car rider line at school gets a bit tedious, am I right?

Back to my love of personal development books! I really love when a book I am reading makes me THINK, and makes me want to be BETTER. I enjoy taking notes when reading (or highlighting and bookmarking in my Kindle!), and applying what I learn in my daily life. I wanted to share my top five favorite books for personal development that are in my Kindle Paperwhite right now, I know you will love them as much as I do!

1) Carry On Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton: This is one of the first books that really touched me, and made me go out and buy it so I had in on both my Kindle and in paperback form. I love that Glennon is deeply flawed and real, and isn’t afraid to show that. She is raw and honest and uplifting all at the same time.

2) Yes, Please by Amy Poehler: I was so surprised by this book! I didn’t expect it to resonate with me as much as it did, being both really funny and deeply touching. Amy is really insightful and gives great life advice as she tells her own story.

3) Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott: I’m not sure how I happened upon this book as I am not religious and don’t read books with that in mind, but I loved Anne’s story (she has seen it all and done it all and survived it all), as well as her wisdom. I buy almost very single book she publishes and go back to read this one often.

4) Wild by Cheryl Strayed: This book is so much more than a book about a girl hiking. Cheryl tells a really heartbreaking story about her life and losing her mom and how she ended up finding herself in the end. It was deeply poetic and beautiful.

5) The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin: I liked this book because it gave concrete ways to increase your own happiness by breaking up resolutions into pieces and working on one at a time. I think I’m a pretty happy person in general, but learned a lot about myself while reading about Gretchen’s journey to find more happiness in her life.

Reading now: Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes and For the Love by Jen Hatmaker, I’ll let you know how they are! (Loving them both already…)

This is a sponsored post, but all opinions are my own! Thank you for reading;)